Doctors interested in Apple's iPad; 1 in 5 plan to buy one
And almost 40% of survey respondents want more info on new device
By Lucas Mearian
February 10, 2010 04:48 PM ET

Computerworld - According to one medical software vendor, physicians are already warming up to Apple's coming tablet, the iPad, with 22% percent of clinicians in a survey saying they plan to purchase the device within a year.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Epocrates Inc. surveyed 350 clinicians a few days after Apple announced the iPad. The company claims more than 275,000 physicians subscribe to its free or paid software, which provides access to clinical information from smartphones like the iPhone, Blackberries and Palm devices.

The medical software provider also announced that its clinical reference application for the iPhone and iPod touch devices will be customized for the new iPad.

"By optimizing our software for the iPad, we are capitalizing on the larger screen real estate and interactivity provided by this sophisticated device," Rose Crane, CEO of Epocrates said in a statement. "We are continuing to explore the advanced capabilities of the iPad and ways it can help Epocrates address the evolving health care technology needs."

Epocrates' survey showed that 9% of respondents plan to buy an iPad as soon as it's available, and another 13% plan to buy it within a year. An additional 39% expressed interest in the iPad, but said they wanted more information before making a decision.

You are a fanboy and because you are, nothing that you post can be taken seriously. I think the iPad should be priced at $50 because thats all I have to pay. Apple should take a loss on this product because they are so evil. I know I am a child and no nothing of the real world but I do know better than you. I hope you choke on all your filthy money.

The iPad is a going to be a great tool for all professions. Lawyers will have all their legal documents on an iPad. Doctors will go from patient to patient with all their medical records on one small iPad. Colleges will start offering all books on iPad, a lot of them are already requiring iPhones or iPod Touch. The list goes on....

The only people I see complaining are the children who wanted something cool to play on. Well Wake up time kiddos! The iPad isnt meant to be a toy, but a tool. And it will be an amazing tool. And then when all of the game developers make a plethora of games, you kiddies will love the iPad and be battling each other or whatever the heck you guys do all day! You can MMORPG all day!!! wooooooohoooooooo

Ok, the last part was a joke

well i guess that could be a good point. but i dont think its anywhere near all professions.

But again unless there is handwriting available(which is very hard to do with one finger, so you would need like a stylus). i see alot of limitations in the professional world.

And i see it as no use for me as a toy or a professional use. Im waiting for bootcamp atm. But will soon be in the military for computer programming. The ipad has no where near the computing capability or apps that would be useful for me in anyway.

-If it had ability to play online videos(whether it be a broken mac flash, or html5. though html5 is quite a ways away).
-Handwriting tool..
-camera would be nice, since you can in a way scan something, because the pic would be big enough to read text.
-if it was jailbreakable, and there was a jailbreak that worked for it.

the 1st gen of it doesnt have hope. maybe later versions having all of the things listed above, i would consider buying it.

At first I wasn't going to get one, just recently got rid of my iphone so figured what the heck do I need an iPad for it's just another iphone. Originally I was hoping it would be a tablet with osx operating system so was really disappointed but then after thinking about it for awhile it makes sense why they went with iphone OS.

This is essentially to compete with the netbooks and for that purpose it will blow them away just due to the appstore alone pretty much all you can do on a netbook is surf net, email etc... the processors are too weak to do much else. Same with the processor in ipad but where it has a big advantage is that tons of developers will be making games and apps for it so it will in the end be alot more useful/fun than a netbook. Not to mention the web browsing on a 10" touchscreen with pinch to zoom will be way better than on any netbook. Not having flash is a disappointment but as long as it does Youtube and Hulu comes out with there supposed ipad app that is pretty much all I need flash for.

If it was expensive I would pass but seeing as it is relatively cheap I am going to pick one up just to surf in bed/on the couch and when I have some downtime at work maybe play some games too I think some of the iphone games on a bigger screen will be alot of fun.I also plan to use it to transfer all my pictures when i'm taking them at work or out and about to get a better view of them on a larger screen. Basically this thing will just be way more convenient than a netbook or a laptop for my personal use.

So basically I thought the ipad was stupid at first but the idea has managed to grow on me enough that I plan to buy one on launch day.